US Won’t Sue to Stop States’ Legalization of Pot!!

Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug, license people to grow it and even allow adults to stroll into stores and buy it.

I think this is a smart move by the Obama Administration. When only a few states decriminalize marijuana the feds can act foolishly and try to stop them. However, when 20 states do so, it’s a major American trend and the feds are smart to stay out of their way.

Louisiana isn’t the sort of state to legalize little amounts of pot. We are a very conservative state, except for that bastion of liberalism, my adopted hometown, New Orleans. In an attempt to keep non violent offenders out of Orleans Parish Prison, small amounts of marijuana has been decriminalized recently by the powers that be.

Marijuana Bud

In a memo to federal prosecutors nationwide on Thursday, James M. Cole, the deputy attorney general, erased some uncertainty about how the government would respond to state laws making it legal to use marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.

Citing limited prosecutorial resources, Mr. Cole explained the change in economic terms. But the memo also made clear that the Justice Department expects states to put in place regulations aimed at preventing marijuana sales to minors, illegal cartel and gang activity, interstate trafficking of marijuana, and violence and accidents involving the drug.

Huge Marijuana Joint

Marijuana advocates praised the decision as a potentially historic shift in the federal government’s attitude toward a drug it once viewed as a menace to public health. By allowing states to legalize and regulate marijuana, advocates said, the federal government could reduce jail populations and legal backlogs, create thousands of jobs, and replenish state coffers with marijuana taxes.